Open Thread 8.26.2014

– I’m of 2 minds about Washington NARAL’s Men for Choice fundraiser. When I went to lobby day with them this year, there were like 10 to 1 women to men, and it is important to get men to show up. And it is important that these things not just be women’s issues. On the other hand, I’d rather more men show up at lobby day and at their other fundraisers than that. Still, if you want to go, I’m sure it will be a good event.

Speaking of reading lists, I’m currently reading Jared Diamond’s “The World Before Yesterday: What We Can Learn From Traditional Societies,” Clifford Geertz’s “The Interpretation of Cultures,” and Allen Guelzo’s “Gettysburg: The Last Invasion.” (I usually read several books at a time.)

Roger Rabbit Commentary: These two could have gone to jail. They could have been fined $25,000. The airline could have sued them for extra fuel costs. They were lucky to get off with a time-out in the TSA’s rubber room.

One article calls the Knee Defender “the most passive aggressive product ever created” and said “the manufacturers have recognized that this may be a problem” so they provide with their product “a handy ‘courtesy card’ to wordlessly display to your fellow passengers” that says:

“I realize that this may be an inconvenience. If so, I hope you will complain to the airline. Maybe working together we can convince the airlines to provide enough space between rows so that people can recline their seats without banging into other passengers.”

This guy is lucky the other passenger only threw water on him. The NRA is lobbying for open carry everywhere. When Second Amendment Rights (copyrighted and trademarked; patent pending) come to aircraft cabins, one of two things will happen: Either passengers will use their guns to blow up each other’s Knee Defenders, or they’ll use them to pop each other in the head.

That story reminds me of a news item some years ago about a Noisy Generator. This, too, is fundamentally about Second Amendment Rights (copyrighted and trademarked; patent pending). This happened in an RV campground. It was nighttime, when reasonable people are sleeping. The guy who owned the Noisy Generator told the guy who complained about the Noisy Generator to go fuck himself, or words to that effect — you know, what the law calls “fighting words.” So the complainer came back with a hammer and smacked the spark plug to make Noisy Generator shut up. Then the guns came out. I forget which one survived, but he went to prison for life, although in his case that wasn’t very long, as both of these guys were in their 70s or 80s. You’d think that age would know better. Guess not. Or maybe they were just tired of living. Old people can get that way, you know.

(Un)SP appears kaput. Oh, there’s a new Jim Miller post on it today (after three weeks of graveyard silence), but it’s about something that happened (or didn’t) in the 1930s. Not sure when he (yes, he’s the entire blog now) plans to catch up on current news. Meanwhile, Seattle’s liberal blog has barreled past its 10th anniversary and is livelier and more populated than ever. Not hard to figure out who’s winning the blog wars around here.

A poll of Iowa Republicans has produced a clear front runner who blows away the competition: 35% chose Mitt Romney, with second-place Mike Huckabee badly trailing badly at 9%. Shows how scrawny the GOP bench is. With Romney, they’ve got 47% of the popular vote and 200 electoral votes; without him they’ve got next to nuthin’.

Name familiarity plays a big role in electoral politics, but even though Clinton hasn’t said she’s running and Romney has said he isn’t, a Clinton-Romney matchup in 2016 doesn’t look farfetched. Who else do the Democrats have? Who else does the GOP have?

I have little doubt which of them would win, although you can’t take anything for granted and you have to work for it. Regardless of who the candidates are, the electoral map looks awfully difficult for the GOP.

They’ll have a tough Senate map in 2016, too; any gains they make this year are likely to be fleeting. In 2016, the situation will be reversed and it’ll be the GOP who’s defending more seats and vulnerable seats.

Something to watch out for is Republicans will be foaming-at-mouth and thirsty-man-in-desert desperate in 2016. They feel about 8 years of Obama like we felt about 8 years of Chimp (although we had legitimate cause). You know, it’s-the-end-of-America-if-Hillary-wins.

And given their flawed ideology, flawed candidates, and massive unpopularity among America’s fastest-growing population segments, realistically they have only one way to win: Cheat. So the GOP voter suppression and election stealing machinery will be screeching in high gear in 2016, and Democrats will be called on again to defend democracy with armies of lawyers, observers, and voter registration volunteers.

But our tactics are getting better even as theirs grow nastier, and although Republicans used to have a built-in edge of 4 or 5 million people they could prevent from voting, that’s no longer enough to overcome their unpopularity. At some point, they make wake up and realize their only chance is to stop being nuts.

More details are emerging about how white police treat black people in Ferguson, Missouri:

“As darkness fell … a makeshift memorial sprang up … where Michael Brown’s body had been sprawled …. Flowers and candles were scattered over the bloodstains on the pavement. … Soon, police vehicles reappeared …. Several officers emerged with dogs. … An officer … let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial site.”

and

“Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace … went to the scene … to comfort the parents … and around 7 p.m. she joined Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and others as they placed the candles and sprinkled flowers on the ground where Brown had died. … Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.”

Whoever wrote the title for this article obviously hasn’t ever met SchizoPuddles. Funny, how quick he was to repeat these obvious and flagrant lies almost like a goddamn Mynah bird and then disappears for a few days when the facts start coming out.

@20 Ah, yes, the fake x-ray. Back in the days of real journalism a reporter would have been fired for turning in a story like this one.

The problem is the Glenn Becks and Tucker Carlsons of the world can run a headline screaming “Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson Beaten Nearly Unconscious, Suffered Eye Socket Fracture Before Shooting Michael Brown: Report” or “Claim: Darren Wilson Suffered Fractured Eye Socket” and that’s all the wingers ever see because their tolerance for reading is limited to 20 words or less; whereas debunking this kind of bullshit involves writing a lengthy and detailed article that isn’t read by the people who most need to read it. And so the beat goes on …

There’s really not much we can do about people who go through life with their heads that far up their asses. You know who I mean, the incurious types whose “thinking” consists of regurgitating the bumper sticker slogans they hear on hate-talk radio. Look, this is America, where everyone has a constitutional right to be an idiot; what’s sad is when people insist on exercising that right.

Roger Rabbit Commentary: This company runs the concessions at numerous sports arenas around the country, including Seattle’s Safeco Field. If you buy food there you’re putting money in this guy’s pocket, because he’s not only the CEO but an owner of the company. Let me guess, his company is a non-union minimum wage employer, am I right? Don’t know what his politics are, but a guy who KICKS PUPPIES probably opposes to raising the $7.25 federal minimum wage too. Ya think? This probably wasn’t an isolated incident, either, he simply got caught this time.

I can’t understand why some Americans worship wealthy people. I don’t see what’s so great about someone who KICKS PUPPIES in elevators whenever he’s frustrated by business problems. But cops are even worse; first they KICK puppies, then they SHOOT ’em. (Cops shoot people, too, especially brown people. I wonder if a brown dog is more likely to be shot by a cop than a white dog? Anyone have statistics on this?)

11) I wonder if access to transit played a factor? It’s going to be within walking distance of buses, streetcars, light rail, Ferries, and Commuter Rail. Currently, I believe that Weyerhaeuser HQ is served by a shuttle to the Federal Way Transit Center.

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